Northfield Historical Society Museum

Midwest Living Review

Hannah Agran

Visitors can see the spot where Jesse James' outlaw gang met its end in 1876.

Not all small-town museums can peg their collections on such a cool historic event as Northfield's defeat of Jesse James and his outlaw band in 1876. The museum is adjacent to the First National Bank building. After reading about the event in a small gallery, visitors can actually step into the bank, where a teller's window has been installed on the bank's original floorboards. Other cool exhibits include the original blood-spotted ledger and postmortem photographs of the shootout's victims. The museum has a nice little gift shop with a great selection of brochures, walking tours, maps and other tourism materials. Our favorite: A photocopy of the original newspaper that told citizens of Northfield what had happened in their local bank.